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Posts Tagged ‘merging worlds’

I know I need to blog more to gain followers and I need to do better self promotion both in sl and outside it. It leads me to a discussion I had with a friend a few weeks ago. We were talking about how using a virtual world platform as your default real life avatar and not as a shadow avatar that exists only in the digital world.
I began to ponder this, can my virtual life make my real first life better, and if so how ? And why do we hide our selves behind these pixels and prims.

Well I guess telling my story might help me am I ready to blend them together yes on a level that I can safely control and be comfortable with. Will I open up fully yes at some point. But it’s best to start in the beginning I think.

It was a warm night in new york in August I have always been a technology fan and have loved what you can create in a computer limitations aside. I happened too be watching the science channel and saw a piece on second life. The primary story was virtual love crossing into real life love between two people one in holland I believe the other in California I could be wrong on their locations it’s been a few years.
As I watched this show segment I saw the beauty in this world and the creativity when one of the interviewed people said in second life I can be anything do anything and create anything. After the segment ended I went too my pc and downloaded the viewer from second life to find out my graphics card would not support this world / game. But my other computer a older Mac g4 would.

I signed up for a free account and logged in to this virtual world a noobie with not clue as to what I needed too do next to begin. I wandered this virtual land I was on help island there were other new people there all of us clueless on what it was we were ment too do. I opened the map and saw all these green dots spread out and when I clicked a red circle appeared and I teleported out to some place I don’t even remember. I met some people sitting on a brick wall and made my first friend a female avatar named grace.
She was a few weeks older than me and proceeded to show me her favorite places she had found. One being a dance place where you floated in the air with the solar system all around you.
I was hooked right then by this. A day or so later she said come see this singer he’s having a live show. So off I went and experienced the virtual music of this stranger who sung well enough he could be on the radio. And yet he was a guy outside Chicago who just enjoyed singing. After his concert performance show thing we went outside the club with a group of his fans and him and enjoyed the amusing park setting rides and games. Never forget even virtual bumper cars are fun.

I made friends with these new people most on some sort of relationship a few single and they said to me man we gotta help fix your avatar it’s hideous. To me it was me no big deal. But they said no look at us we are unique but different also they had hair that looked real skins that mimicked the real skins we all have. Yes they had no body fat perfect smiles and each was more beautiful than the other.
I proceeded too make my home here on this sim in a virtual home I rented and then furnished. Even send a entire living room set flying into my neighbors house. A year passed I worked on my home and my land and enjoyed their live music venue. Found a woman who was at the time special and loving and proceeded to leave second life to explore other things.
My friends moved off this main land region to a private region and that is where I learned how too work with land terraform it and build things on this platform. Some not so well as others

This led me into my own land off there’s to build my own world. A small bit of land on a sim edge for a house and some water thankfully I had understanding neighbors who didn’t mind me landing a virtual jet at all hours or crashing into there homes.
It was a playground where you really could have an do anything.

By now I felt secure in my virtual life and it’s protective shell it allowed me todo things I normally would never do in real life as easy or morally be able to do. Like playing tag with machine guns. In real life you would go to jail for that here you laugh about it.

Months passed I grew a network of friends we would spend nights together doing something exploring the grid and what was out there in a group of laughing people.
Then it changed. People grew mad at each other feeling heartache and distrust towards other members of our group and so I moved along and left lost of them behind some I still talk too at times but not much. Most have left sl now for real life only. Even though I suspect at times they come in for a look.
I opened my first club with a friend in this giant warehouse looking hall decorated it with funny things and ran a few comedic events there. We had a show even the Kev and miike show told jokes made people run and drive obstacle courses our best event to date was we took four people and told the to anywhere on the grid naked and take a photo with three other people in it that you don’t know. A few minutes passed and they returned photos in hand all the while laughing and having fun. We crowned the winner who not only got a photo with three people but brought them back with her to the club.

Moving on I opened another club this time on a entire full region an tried to rent it and keep it funded but with rental costs of $345 a month for the sim and club expenses after 6 months I grew tired of losing money daily between staff costs and sim costs and lack of rentals. I closed it down. Then I found burning life the virtual world of burning man in sl. A festival I had attended in the past in my real life. I rediscovered the playa and why I loved these people so much. I eventually took over the role of lead of the department of public works for the festival in charge of layout and design for the festival. Finding quality builders to created key elements of the temple and the man and roads and many other things.

Still today I am the now co-lead of the burn2 DPW and while it is frustration at times I would never change that enjoyment I get from this event. This event led me into being a resident core team lead for second life’s 8th birthday official event held on linden supplied sims and with their guidance and support to create a giant party. The best to date I’m still told. Wait till sl9b I have things planned already to make it even better.

And so that is when my real life changed I had a parent with stage four cancer now requiring me to move from new York to Arizona. And taking time from my virtual world life for my real one again.

I still enjoy second life because of the people mostly. Many know me from name because of things I have been involved in some have no idea who I am and that’s even better because I can not be seen as this large event planner but as a individual who is just enjoying the virtual world.

My friend I spoke too about merging worlds said when she did it. Things came flowing in friends and family and real life business opportunities as well.
It made me think why am I hiding this world from my default world. As best I can describe it I think it’s that security a virtual avatar allows in you are anything you wish too be and anyone you want too be on some level.
To the three people who read this I thank you I will be writing a follow up piece soon but typing this all out on my iPhone yes really two thumbs can type this much, has tired my hands.
Part two coming soon where we delve into what’s next and what’s it all about